FCC Votes to Review Its Ban on In-Flight Calls

By Abby Ohlheiser

December 13, 2013

The Federal Communications Commission took a big step toward allowing in-flight phone calls during air travel on Thursday, voting 3-2 to review its rules that ban them. Months ago, the new FCC chair Tom Wheeler proposed that the agency look at lifting the decades-old ban, which the agency put in place for technical reasons. Now that his proposal has passed, the agency will look at whether the ban should be lifted. In a USA Today op-ed published on Thursday in support of changing the rules, Wheeler noted that "we will collect and carefully review consumer and technical input before taking any final action." As part of its review process, the FCC will take public comment on the proposal.